April 27th is National Healthy Schools Day! Making sure the place where your child spends most of their day could not be more scrutinized for safety, yet it also seems to be difficult for many parents to know how to advocate school health. For this important event (and not for just one day, of course), I’m happy to have my first guest writer! Janelle Sorensen is the Senior Writer and Health Consultant for Healthy Child, Healthy World, an advocacy and education organization for kids and parents. Here’s her take on bringing school health to the forefront of your children’s education.
When my husband and I first toured schools to find the one we wanted to enroll our daughter in, I’m sure I was silently voted one of the strangest parents ever. Why do I feel I was secretly endowed with this title? Because every room and hallway we were taken through, I sniffed. A lot. And, according to my husband, I wasn’t terribly discreet.
I didn’t have a cold or postnasal drip. And, I’m not part bloodhound. I was simply concerned about the indoor air quality. My daughter was (and still is) prone to respiratory illnesses and I wanted to be sure the school she would be attending would support and protect her growing lungs (in addition to her brain). For many air quality issues, your nose knows, so I was using the easiest tool I had to gauge how healthy the environment was.
While air quality is a significant issue in schools (the EPA estimates that at least half of our nation’s 120,000 schools have problems), parents are also increasingly concerned about other school health issues like nutrition and the use of toxic pesticides. Many schools are making the switch to healthier and more sustainable practices like green cleaning, least toxic pest management, and even school gardening. What they’re finding is that greening their school improves the health and performance of students and personnel, saves money (from using less energy, buying fewer products, and having fewer worker injuries among other things), and also helps protect the planet. It’s truly win, win, win.
To highlight the issue, the Healthy Schools Network coordinates National Healthy Schools Day. This year, over three dozen events will be held across the country (and more in Canada) on April 27th to promote and celebrate healthy school environments.
What can you do? Healthy Schools Network recommends simple activities such as:
• Adopting Guiding Principles of School Environmental Quality as a policy for your School;
• Distributing information related to Green Cleaning or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ);
• Writing a letter or visiting your Principal or Facility Director to ask about cleaning products or pest control products;
• Walking around your school: looking for water stains, cracks in outside walls, broken windows or steps, and overflowing dumpsters that are health & safety problems that need attention. Use this checklist;
• Writing a Letter to the Editor of your local paper on the importance of a healthy school to all children and personnel.
You can also help support the efforts of states trying to pass policies requiring schools to use safer cleaners. (Or, initiate your own effort!) There are good bills pending in Connecticut, Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, and Oregon. According to Claire Barnett, Executive Director of the Healthy Schools Network, the key pieces to promote on green cleaning in schools are:
• Not being fooled by ‘green washing’ claims—commercial products must be third-party certified as green (to verify claims);
• Understanding that green products are cost-neutral and they work; and,
• Learning that “Clean doesn’t have an odor.”
She encourages parents and personnel to tune into one of the archived webinars on green cleaning (like the first module for general audiences) at www.cleaningforhealthyschools.org.
The fact of the matter is that whether you’re concerned about the quality of food, cleaning chemicals, recycling, or energy use – schools need our help and support. Instead of complaining about what’s wrong, it’s time to help do what’s right – for our children, our schools, and our planet.
What are you going to do? There are so many ideas and resources. Find your passion and get active on April 27th – National Healthy Schools Day.
Additional Resources:
• Creating Healthy Environments for Children (DVD): A short video with easy tips for schools and a variety of handouts to download and print.
• Getting Your Child’s School to Clean Green: A blog I wrote last year with advice based on my experience working with schools.
• Healthy Community Toolkit: Healthy Child Healthy World’s tips and tools for being a successful community advocate and some of our favorite organizations working on improving child care and school environments and beyond.
• The Everything Green Classroom Book: The ultimate guide to teaching and living green and healthy.
Janelle Sorensen is the Senior Writer and Health Consultant for Healthy Child Healthy World. You can also find her on Twitter as @greenandhealthy.
Welcome to the next installment of Mommy Go Green Blog Tours! Since I’m always packing lunches and lugging around snacks, I was more than excited to try out these awesome stainless steel containers from LunchBots! LunchBots are made entirely out of the highest quality 18/8 stainless steel. Studies have shown that stainless steel is safer to use for storing food than plastic. Stainless steel doesn’t leach harmful chemicals, is washable and resuable. This means less plastic baggies in the trash and no worries about what else your kids might be consuming with their food!
LunchBots comes in two variations. The LunchBots Uno is large enough for a sandwich, pasta or any main dish. The LunchBots Duo has a divider in the middle, for snacks or picky kids who like to have a variety of foods in their lunch. I use at least one of the LunchBots every day. My younger daughter isn’t much of a sandwich eater, so I often pack grapes or sliced fruit in the Uno for my older daughter’s school snack. We’ve also brought LunchBots to soccer, playdates or just for a car trip. One of my favorite parts is the tight-fitting lid, which has never opened or caused spills for any of us.
LunchBots have been independently tested at a lab in California to certify that they are made from the highest quality stainless steel and are completely lead-free. Of course, my kindergartner thinks they look cool, so it gets bonus points with her!
Use the code FREESHIP09 for free shipping (US only, please)! These are a great addition to your traveling kitchen, and I would highly recommend LunchBots for families with kids of any age, or even adults who love to bring food hiking, the beach or the car!
How can we talk about back-to-school without trying to figure out how to manage it all? I keep an on-line calendar, use the one on my phone, keep a notebook with me at all times…and sometimes I still feel disorganized. Even with all the ways to keep your day in check, there are always possibilities for more help. This year, I’m trying a more conventional approach - a great big calendar for my kitchen wall that I can see plain and clear!
Time Too has many solutions for your growing family and all the scheduling that comes with it. Their Baby Tracker line looks awesome for new parents who need to monitors baby’s feeding and sleeping times, as well as all the milestones in between, in a convenient notebook. It comes in a 24 hour view, and comes in either a single book, or as a fill for a binder. Considering the way my baby notebooks looked in my girls’ infant days, this would have come in way handier (and kept me a lot better organized!)
I have Time Too’s Family Tracker ready to go (it’s school year-based, so it begins in September, although for us Southern folks TODAY is the beginning of the school year!). The calendar is SUPER-big, with large squares on each date to write plenty of activities, birthday reminders, and ballet and soccer practice times. Morning, noon and night are even colored coded, so you don’t scribble date night with your spouse right next to the teacher meeting and get them confused! There’s also plenty of room for notes, phone numbers, to-do lists, anything you need to keep your family running smooth. The Family Tracker and journal pages are also made from recycled paper, and have a neat little stamp on them showing an “eco-audit” of the trees, water and energy saved while making Time Too products.
I have a giant Family Tracker wall calendar for one ready-to-run family! Time Too has a bunch of other wonderful products to choose from, so please click around and tell me - what would be your perfect Time Too organization tool for your family? Please leave a comment here, as usual. This contest will be open until next Monday, August 25th at midnight, PST. Good luck, and for many of you, happy back to school!
This contest is now closed! Thanks to everyone for entering!
What an amazing time to be a kid who eats lunch! When I started my search for a PVC-free, lead-free lunchbag two years ago, it was slim pickings. Now, you can find so many wonderful and functional lunchbags to fit the style and personality of your kids. Because lunch should be as fun as school, right? Many schools don’t allow metal lunchboxes, because they’re difficult to store in the fridge, but I threw one in for bigger kids. Here are my favs for this back-to-school season:
For the Animal Lover - I flipped over these BUILT Munchlers lunch bags, and I think if I didn’t already have too many lunch-carrying options I would buy every one of them. They’re made from soft-sided polypropylene, tested safe for food, lead free, and easy for small hands to open themselves. The coolest part, aside from carrying around fab animals, is that the bag folds out to a placemat! That means clean lunch space and the bag stores flat when your kids finally put them down! They also come in a wearable lunch pack option.
For the Futurist - Fleurville has come a long way since their original Mothership bags, and their Lunch Pak is a proven hit with the preschool set. The PVC-free bag can be worn as a backpack or carried, and is completely insulated with a wipeable interior. It comes in a totally mod design (they could have named it a Lunch “Pod”) with great colors for both boys and girls. I’m hoping they’ll eventually make this bag as part of their Re-Run line and save some plastic bottles from landfills in the future!
For the Whimsical Set - I wrote about Mimi the Sardine bags for my very first teensygreen post, and I still hail these bags as our go-to lunch/snack/art supply/all around bag. Mimi the Sardine bags are made from 100 percent lead free, PVC-free, and meets the Oeko-Tex 100 Standard for safe textiles. They’re so fun to carry around, I mean, your kids will look so adorable carrying these to school!
For Kids Who Love Opening Boxes (and Well Coordinated Lunches) - Bento boxes are all the rage, but many of them (AKA cheap ones) have lids that always open and spill. My younger daughter loves her Laptop Lunch Bento system for many reasons. One, she eats like a bird, and having the ability to put a bunch of different foods together without plastic baggies makes both of us happy. Second, she gets to open all those little boxes herself - like food presents! Laptop Lunch wil save you a lot on plastic wraps and bags, and you can buy extra boxes in great colors. You also get their lunch menu cookbook, with awesome photos of lunch ideas that will make you instantly hungry!
For Older Kids - I first saw the tiffin lunch system while watching Anthony Bourdain eat his way through India. Men called “dabbawalas” or literally, “one who carries a box,” collect these stainless steel lunch boxes from suburban homes, deliver them miles away to their respective lunch recipients, and return the tiffins to their homes. Apparently they have amazing delivery accuracy (wish I could say the same for some places near my house)! These tiffins have made their way here, and I think they’re super sleek and old-fashioned all at the same time. Tiffins come in various sizes, from two to four tiers, can be insulated, and are sealed for no spillage. I think these would be great for older kids who are past the swinging-lunchbag phase, and who can manipulate the tiffin opening, which can be tricky.
I don’t know where you live, but here in Florida we’re on a ONE WEEK countdown to kindergarten. One week gives me not too much time to get ready for school supplies, earlier wake-ups, new teacher, classroom, and the hundreds of other tiny details to make the first day of school as stress free (and tear free) as possible. So for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be covering a lot of Back to School stuff, from the littlest kids to the ones you’re getting ready to send to college and beyond.
One important part of back to school gear is, of course, the backpack. For the past two years we’ve had to buy new packs, after the old ones seem to fall apart at the end of the year and are unrecyclable. I’m also not a big fan of character backpacks, so it was a pleasure to find Ecogear/Ecotech bags. For this giveaway, Ecogear/Ecotech has every kid covered, with organic fabrics and PVC-free materials for their unique, roomy and totally rugged bags for tots to teens and beyond. They’ve even patented a new material, called Ecoweave, which is clean to recycle and toxin-free. My husband has even belted the Snow Leopard around his waist when he’s on his scooter! Ecogear/Ecotech has a ton of new products coming out in coming months, so keep checking back about your favorites!
We’re going to have two winners this week! One winner will have their choice of either a Snow Leopard, Movhave Tui or Bighorn big kid pack from the Ecotech line. For the younger set, one winner can choose their favorite color of the Panda backpack from Ecogear. Please leave a comment at this post with your preference of backpack and what other bags you think would look good stuffed with books, sports gear or anything else your kid lug around with them!
This giveaway will be open for one week, until Monday, August 18th at midnight PST. Good luck!
This contest is now closed! Thanks for entering!
Do you know how green your child’s school is? It might seem like a dream, but there is a way to help schools truly go green, beyond recycling and teaching the basics of eco-education. Mom and activist (among other notables) Jill Buck wrote the basis for her Go Green Initiative (GGI) at her kitchen table in 2002. Since then, GGI has grown to be the largest environmental education program in the world, with 1500 schools, 1.5 million students and over 113,000 teachers in all 50 states (as well as thirteen countries outside the US) participating!
So, how can GGI help your school go green? The very best way - by allowing parents, teachers, administrators and kids to develop a green plan themselves. When your school signs up with the Go Green Initiative (which is FREE), the school’s “Go Green Team” has access to GGI’s wealth of resources, including the five ways GGI can help your school form productive ways to have a successful plan. The GGI Planning Guide outlines the concepts of composting; recycling; environmental education; evaluating the environmental impact of activities (including such topics as indoor air quality and buying school supplies); and adopting a plan of responsible paper consumption. GGI is tailored to the needs of your school, and helps schools find a way for budgeting and implementation. GGI focuses on a thorough process of environmental stewardship. It also helps schools track their success, and has been a major testament to GGI’s own successes. In a recent announcement, GGI announced it has kept over SEVEN MILLION POUNDS of recyclables out of landfills in the last three years, as well as significantly reduced energy, water waste, and greenhouse gas emissions in schools around the world.
So, do not pass “GO” without “going green”! Read GGI’s “Why Go Green” section, and see how you can begin to help your child’s school - and children, and community, and on and on - go green!
Jill Buck is taking GGI to the internet airwaves, starting this Friday, June 27th! Her “Go Green Radio” show premieres at 9am PST/Noon EST on Voice America radio. I’m so thrilled that Jill has asked me to be one of her guests on her very first show, as we discuss Go Green for Kids! I hope you can join us and keep an ear to the radio Friday morning!
I’m all about fundraising for my daughter’s school, but it was getting out of control with the cookie dough this month and the candy that month…people got sick of me asking them not only to give money, but for food they probably didn’t want in their house either! Book fairs are a fav, but thinking in an eco-friendly way led me to FundingFactory, a printer cartridge and cell phone recycling program that benefits schools, sports teams, nonprofits, the environment, and everyone’s wallets simultaneously! Sound too good to be true? Seriously, this program is almost too easy to follow - sign up your school or other organization (for FREE) to get a “Jump Start” kit sent to you. There are a ton of resources to help your school get the word out about the program, including posters, drop-off boxes, etc. (again, FREE). You also have on-line tools to help manage the accounts (hello, FREE!), and you can get rewards in cash or through an extensive rewards catalog with school supplies, office supplies, etc. And, landfills will thank you by keeping these items out and keeping the recycling process going!
Also, if you or someone in your family has a business, you can sign up to support a local school or organization you want to benefit from recycling the ink and laser printers in your office. Here’s a list of items FundingFactory recycles, and how much your group can receive per item. Way better than making your kids roam stores with boxes of M&Ms no one will buy and you’ll end up eating anyway…
Kids love nothing more than an assembly to, um, break up the day. Parents and teachers love the messages that come with great entertainment - if kids only knew they were actually learning something! If you’re lucky enough to live in California or the Pacific Northwest, your kids may have seen these unique entertainers bringing a message of conservation and recycling with a funky twist.
In California, Rock Steady Juggling performs various age-appropriate shows about recycling and reusing, water conservation, and pollution. “The Amazing Adventures of the Recycling Wizard” is the elementary-age program, combining juggling and magic; “Waste Not, Want Not,” a recycling and water conservation assembly for middle school students, combines “juggling, comedy and audience participation.” Check out the calendar to see when Rock Steady might be at your kid’s school, and encourage your schools to find an equally fun and informative program.
Recycleman and the Dumpster Divers, a Washington and Oregon State program, provides an interactive concert also with a recycling flair. Peter Dubois is a Waste Reduction Specialist, and his alter ego, Recycleman, has been entertaining kids for over ten years! Your kids will learn such catchy tunes as “Stinky Stinky Landfill,” “Water Conservation Rap,” and “Save It Don’t Pave It”. Be sure to click on the video to see this not-so-stinky band in action!
To get in the school mood (ha ha), why not visit a schoolhouse museum? You can find historic schoolhouses converted into education centers all over the country. Here’s a sample -
Schoolhouse Children’s Museum, Boynton Beach, Florida - We were fortunate enough to live five minutes away from this fully restored schoolhouse museum, located in South Florida. A gem of a hands-on museum for kids as young as two, step back in time and learn about the area’s history through photos, dress up, pretend farming (the ‘milking’ cow is a fav), and an old-time Post Office and General Store, among others. Their calendar is always packed with activities, including story and music times, scavengers hunts, ice cream making, and sidewalk art classes, to name a few.
Discovery Creek Children’s Museum of Washington, DC, also has an amazing array of activities for kids of all ages. Located among four sites, including a stable, botanical, and aquatic gardens, the Historic Schoolhouse includes “12 acres of beautiful majestic hardwood forest, hiking trails, natural rock outcroppings, and a meandering creek.” Seasonal classes about insect lifecycles, natural animal habitats, and more take place both inside the schoolhouse and in nature.
Seneca Schoolhouse Museum, Seneca, Maryland - Located in Seneca National Park in Montgomery County (close to DC and Virginia), the Schoolhouse is open during the school year for “back in time” local history day trips with a costumed teacher. Also available for birthday parties - way cooler than Chuck E. Cheese, if you ask me!
To look for a children’s museum in your area, or if you’re going on vacation, check out the website for the Association of Children’s Museums. There’s still a couple of weeks left before school, and this site might give you that last idea push to keep busy!
Note: This is a recycled post, actually, my first post ever…but in the spirit of Back-to-School, and for popularity’s sake, I thought it was most appropriate to share again…Enjoy!
In 2004, the CEH (Center for Environmental Health) began testing those adorable vinyl lunchbags we’ve bought, borrowed, and gotten for free as promo items for harmful substances such as lead. They found that even small exposures can cause behavioral and hearing problems, and advised people to buy lead-free lunchbags. The problem - um, where are they?
Enter Mimi the Sardine. Cute name, even more adorable product. Mimi’s line of lunchbags are lively, lead free, and lootie-licious! Made from a Swedish cotton fabric coated with a PVC-free, acrylic (not plastic) coating that is Okeo-Tex Standard 100 approved, these lunchbags come in a variety of prints any kid would love to carry all by themselves; plus, the bags are machine washable! Yes, you CAN get out the squished strawberries and spilled apple juice! You may find you’ll want one to sling over your shoulder, too - so check out their mommy-sized shopper!
